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South Sudan peace process at critical juncture

The Head of the UN Peacekeeping Operations said the South Sudan peace process “is at a critical juncture,” and urged the country’s political parties to reach an “Agreement, the whole Agreement and nothing but the Agreement.”

During a briefing to the Security Council, Herve Ladsous told member states “now is the time for the Council and international partners of the IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development) to invest politically in supporting the take-off of the transition, or the progress made could be lost.”

He said that following the Permanent Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangements workshop held in October in Addis Ababa, parties had agreed on security arrangements for Juba, and on 20 October, Ugandan military forces had began to withdraw from South Sudan. He also said President Kiir, during a speech on 18 November had expressed the government support for the peace agreement.

However, Ladsous warned its implementation had been slow with repeated violations, by both parties, of the ceasefire agreement. He also said Kiir’s announcement to establish 28 states in South Sudan had caused controversy in the country.

“At this point of the peace process, any unilateral political in initiative taken by either party is counter-productive. Our messaging to both parties should be clear and unequivocal: we need the Agreement, the whole Agreement and nothing but the Agreement, and we need it urgently,” Ladsous said.

“The key issue facing IGAD and UNMISS is defining what investing politically in this situations means, and who all the relevant political actors are. To this point no single actor has clearly demonstrated a willingness to cooperate, with IGAD, the UN, or the “enemy” for an extended period of time,” says Zuri Linetsky, Forcier Consulting’s Conflict & Security Analyst. Forcier is a key public and private sector research firm in Africa.

Linetsky, who works from Cairo, continued. “At the same time, no unified opposition exists. Machar is but one of several leaders of armed opposition forces, and his power over the other actors is decidedly unclear. Therefore, even though Machar can commit to a peace process, other groups who are labelled rebels are not necessarily bound by this commitment. To be clear, there is the larger Kiir-rebel conflict, but cattle raiding and looting is not necessarily bound up in this conflict, it occurs in parallel, suggesting that 1 deal between the rebels and the state is not a comprehensive solution.”

Moreover, IGAD and UNMISS/the UN are not capable of peace enforcement. Some independent guarantor of peace, between all of the relevant groups is necessary. However, to date not such guarantor has been identified.”

Francis Mading Deng, the Permanent Representative of the Republic of South Sudan to the UN, said his country was “fully committed to the implementation of the recently signed Peace Agreement. President Salva Kiir Mayardit in his recent address to the National Legislative Assembly reiterated his commitment to implementing the agreement in letter and spirit.”

He also said the President had “urged members of the Assembly to honor their obligation to the people of South Sudan by joining hands with him in implementing the Agreement, to bring an end to the suffering of the citizens, restore normalcy to the country and deliver services to the people.”